Andy Carver

Occupation

Born

Died

First appearance

Last appearance

Duration

Number of appearances

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Andrew "Andy" Carver initially introduced himself to the residents of Coronation Street posing as Michael Rodwell's son Gavin. Despite his original deception, he formed a close bond with Michael, especially following the real Gavin's death, and also began dating Steph Britton who was Andy's colleague at the Bistro he began working at.

Following Michael's death from a heart attack, and realising that Michael's enemy Pat Phelan had a hand in his death, Andy got into a dangerous feud with him which resulted in Andy attempting to kill Phelan in retribution. After being subjected to weeks of blackmail by a vengeful Phelan, Andy attempted to take him down a second time, however he was brutally attacked and kidnapped by Phelan and imprisoned in the basement of a derelict house, as Phelan was unable to go through with killing him.

Andy spent nearly a year in the cellar, with those he knew back on the street assuming he had simply moved away. After killing Phelan's former business partner turned enemy Vinny Ashford in a desperate bid to prove his loyalty and earn his freedom, Andy himself was murdered by Phelan, who realised that he couldn't risk letting Andy go and risk reporting his ordeal to anyone else.

Contents

Biography

2014-2015: Posing as Gavin

In November 2014 he went to meet Michael at Just Nick's. The meeting didn't go according to plan and Andy left, however he later contacted Michael and asked to meet the next day. Later that month he attempted to contact the real Gavin after finding out that Michael suffered from a heart condition, which was confirmed to be hereditary.

He continued to build a bond with Michael and was immediately hired by Nick Tilsley at the bistro when he learned that Andy was an experienced waiter, although Andy seemed to show signs of uneasiness at his deceit and attempted to contact the real Gavin on several occasions. He also met co-worker Steph Britton there. On New Year's Eve after Leanne Tilsley was reinstated as bistro manager, she asked him for references, national insurance number and bank details which caused him to panic out of fear of being exposed. However he managed to get hold of Gavin's national insurance details, and made up the story that he didn't have access to his bank account because of an incident of hacking. On New Year's Day, he kissed Steph.

In January 2015, a guilt-ridden Andy confessed to Steph about his deceit in the aftermath of Michael suffering another shock collapse. He admitted that he was a flatmate of the real Gavin Rodwell, and after Gavin had fled with his girlfriend Andy visited Michael as part of a prank, but felt bad when he realised Michael was genuinely sorry for not being in the real Gavin's life. He agreed to tell Michael everything, but he and Steph decided not to after they found out that Michael required open heart surgery, and that the shock would most likely kill him.

In March, Andy was shocked when he found out from Steph that the real Gavin Rodwell was back from Thailand. When Andy went to see Gavin at the flat, Gavin began questioning him about why he had received pay slips from Nick's Bistro and questioned him over a letter written by Michael. Defeated, Andy revealed he was using Gavin's identity, and tried to insist that Michael was a changed man and regretted abandoning his son. Gavin wasn't so sympathetic however, and threatened to expose Andy's lies. Later that evening when Andy and Steph were at the Rovers along with Michael and his fiancée Gail McIntyre, Gavin turned up and said that he would remain silent on the condition that Andy paid him £5,000. However, in the following days, Gavin died in a car accident. Gail, Steph and Andy were shocked. Gail attended Gavin's funeral and met his mother, Susan Meldrum.

The following month, Gail suspiciously started buying flowers for Gavin's grave but David followed her one day and found out the truth. Meanwhile, evil drug-dealer Callum Logan was trying to gain custody of his son Max Turner (who was living with stepfather David). On Gavin's birthday, David blackmailed Andy into helping him get Callum arrested. He made him buy drugs in The Swarbrick Arms and he then drove to The Dog & Gun and forced Andy to plant drugs in Callum's car. However Callum, along with his mates Gemma Winter and Macca, returned to the car and found Andy. They held him hostage in the pub's back room and threatened to beat him up. As Callum was about to attack Andy, he said that he would tell him everything. At that moment David walked in. After an argument, Callum released Andy but kidnapped David and beat him up. Andy returned to Gavin's birthday party late and told a shocked Steph about everything that happened. David was subsequently released by Callum and returned to Coronation Street, but had suffered a beating by his hands first.

Andy and Gail are rumbled after Michael finds out the truth about Gavin.

Andy's deceit was unveiled in June when Gavin's mother Susan Meldrum sent an album to Michael with pictures of Gavin. Andy awkwardly sat next to Michael as he looked through the photographs, but in later childhood images, it became clear that Andy wasn't Gavin. Michael was angry, even more so at Gail for not telling him and Michael subsequently walked out on Gail. Andy's crime was soon forgotten, as nobody reported him and he continued working at the Bistro as Nick saw him a good employee and didn't want to lose him.

Andy began to slowly patch things up with Michael, who later moved in with him and Steph at 19a Victoria Street. Despite Michael settling things with Andy, he wasn't interested in reconciling things with Gail and instead got together with Gail's enemy Eileen Grimshaw.

2016-2017: Conflict with Pat Phelan

Michael left in March 2016 after Eileen decided to end their relationship and got together with Pat Phelan, a builder who Michael didn't trust. The (rightful) distrust of Phelan drove a wedge between the couple, which resulted in Eileen dumping Michael. Michael attempted to get back with Gail, however she seemed to show disinterest in getting back with him, which subsequently led to him leaving for Brighton with his ice cream van. Andy broke the news to Gail that Michael had left, much to her disappointment.

After Andy and Steph's landlord Jason Grimshaw left for Thailand in June, Phelan began to run the day-to-day operations of Jason's Construction. Phelan made a suggestion to Eileen that she should raise Andy and Steph's rent, which she agreed to although they struggled. When Michael made an unexpected return in July after several months away, he offered to move in with them to help with the rent, much to Phelan's annoyance.

Phelan pins Andy down and attacks him with a laptop.

In January 2017, Phelan discovered that Andy had vital evidence proving that he was behind the luxury apartments con that he had planned with his friend Vinny Ashford. He confronted Andy at his flat, where Andy had just found the footage that could implicate Phelan. As Phelan sat down to survey the footage, Andy sneakily turned on the record on his mobile phone and attempted to get Phelan to confess to his deception. However Phelan caught onto Andy's trick and removed the phone from his pocket. As Phelan was intending to marry Eileen that day, he ordered Andy to destroy the laptop and the evidence, which Andy (in fear) agreed to. Phelan (still in possession of Andy's phone) looked through photos of Steph, before stumbling across photos of Michael. Phelan proceeded to mock Michael, which angered Andy was again. Andy then took the laptop and hit Phelan over the head, which caused him to stumble to the ground. However Phelan wasn't dead or unconscious, and he began to fight Andy. Phelan managed to get Andy to the ground, and proceed to beat him over the head with the laptop. Whether or not Phelan had intended to kill Andy, he had survived the attack. Rather than finish the job, Phelan loaded him into a van and took him to an abandoned old house, in which he chained Andy up in the cellar. Steph left for Portugal on her own, as she had thought Andy left her after receiving a text from his phone (sent by Phelan) claiming she was better off without him.

2017: Kidnapping ordeal and murder

Andy was kept in the basement for months, with Phelan secretly visiting him and providing him with painkillers and food. Although Andy became dependent on Phelan for company, he attempted to fight for his freedom on several occasions. In June 2017, Phelan had sported a black eye, which was presumably caused by Andy. In August, Phelan paid Andy a visit and chatted with him, lamenting on whether or not he could change his ways after recently discovering he had a daughter named Nicola Rubinstein. The following day, Andy unsuccessfully tried to strangle Phelan, who was furious and confiscated his mattress upon discovering he'd used a piece of it in his latest attempt to kill him. Phelan later discovered Andy had stashed a note inside the mattress begging for help. With his patience running out, Phelan returned to the basement and informed Andy that he wouldn't be returning for quite a while, and left him alone for several days.

Upon Phelan's next visit, Andy sported a nasty injury on his arm which had become infected, causing him a great deal of pain. Phelan left him alone once again but eventually decided to save Andy by getting him some antibiotics. Later, Andy came up with a plan and persuaded Phelan to find a replacement prisoner.

Phelan examines Andy's corpse

Andy would commit the crime so that Phelan could live knowing he would never go to the police, and Andy would take care of the new captive. Phelan kidnapped Vinny Ashford and placed him in the cellar alongside Andy, but decided that Andy must kill Vinny in order to buy his freedom, at the same time claiming that Vinny was responsible for Michael's death. Andy shot Vinny dead, but Phelan turned the gun on him. Despite Andy's plea that Phelan was a good person and wouldn't kill, Phelan killed him with a single bullet. Both Andy and Vinny's bodies were subsequently thrown into a pond on the site.

A few months later, development was being done on the site for new flats, with the plan to drain the pond. A panicked Phelan dragged Andy and Vinny's bodies from their watery graves and filled them with cement for pillars. Despite this, their corpses were eventually uncovered in March 2018 when the pillars were due to be torn down due to Phelan's shoddy workmanship, although Gary Windass and Seb Franklin were responsible for uncovering the bodies earlier due to knocking down the pillars in a bid to find a murder weapon Phelan used to kill Luke Britton. Andy was later laid to rest the following month, with family and friends (including former employer Robert Preston) in attendance to pay respects to a young man whose life was cut way too short in the most horrifying of circumstances.

Personality

"If you've owt to say, spit it out before it flamin' well chokes yer"

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Hobbies and interests

Andy done up as a zombie.

Andy had an interest in creative writing and penned his own short stories. In 2016 he also attended a convention with the theme being the undead, and even dressed up as a zombie for the part.

The storyline developed Andy into a sympathetic figure as he bonded with Michael and felt empathy for him, especially as he realised that Michael wanted to make up for abandoning the real Gavin when he was a child. The story paved way for the proper introduction of Gavin (played by Mark Holgate), who appeared for nine episodes in March 2015 before being killed off.

In December 2016 it was suddenly reported that Farnworth was departing the series after two years when a report about a brawl at his leaving party was published by the media. Later that month, it was revealed that Tisha Merry, who portrayed Andy's girlfriend Steph Britton, was also leaving the series. In the weeks building up to his "exit", Andy was involved in a feud with local villain Pat Phelan when he rightfully suspected him being a part of the death of Michael Rodwell, with the story seemingly ending with Andy's murder on 20th January 2017. However the "murder" took place off-screen, leaving it ambiguous to Andy's fate.

Farnworth returned to the show at a later date and began filming secret scenes for Andy's return, which were kept under wraps by the studio having to smuggle the actor into the set to avoid press attention. Andy's return scenes aired on 18th August, eight months after his apparent murder. The return revealed that Andy had been kept captive in a cellar of a derelict all that time, as Phelan was unable to go through with finishing off Andy after their original confrontation back in January, and saw Andy's several attempts to try and get away and appeal to Phelan's "better" nature.

Two months following his return, Andy was permanently killed off on 27th October2017 in Episode 9286 alongside Vinny Ashford (Ian Kelsey). The scenes received 662 complaints from viewers who deemed it too "violent" and "harrowing" to air, however it was cleared by Ofcom.